Students, Faculty, Alumna Receive Fulbright Awards

Seven members of the Saint Louis University community, including students, members of the faculty and a 2012 alumna, have been selected to participate in programs with the prestigious Fulbright Program for the 2014-2015 academic year.

Three graduating seniors and one 2012 graduate have been offered Fulbright U.S. Student Awards. Three recipients were awarded Fulbright English Teaching Assistantships, and one received a Fulbright Study/Research Grant. This is the largest number of Saint Louis University students ever to receive Fulbright Awards in one year, and they join the 22 previous SLU students who have received Fulbright Student Awards since 1975.

The 2014-15 recipients are:

Alex Abbate (Biology, Spanish '14) will be an English teaching assistant in Mexico, where in addition to helping students develop their English language skills and improving her Spanish, she plans develop an after-school program that promotes healthy lifestyles and study of the relationship between language barriers and the quality of health care delivery by engaging with local health care providers. When she returns to the United States, Abbate plans to attend Creighton Medical School.

Michael Meyer (Biology, Russian Studies, International Studies '14) received a Fulbright Study/Research Grant to study the molecular ecology of Lake Baikal with MaksimTimoveev, Ph.D., a leader in molecular ecology at Irkutsk State University in southeast Siberia, Russia. Meyer's research focus is the effect of temperature on catabolic proteins in endemic Baikal amphipods. Meyer also plans to intern with the Tahoe-Baikal Institute, an international environmental education institute, coordinating local events and workshops to promote environmental education and awareness. Before he begins his Fulbright experience, Michael will have the opportunity to study Russian for two months in Kazan, Russia, at the Institute of Social Sciences and Humanities with funding support through the Critical Language Scholarship Program.After completing his Fulbright experience, Meyer plans to pursue a Ph.D. in aquatic or theoretical ecology.

Emily Shoemaker (International Business, IT Management '12) will be an English teaching assistant in South Korea. The opportunity will add to Shoemaker's previous international experiences in South Korea and China and enhance her leadership skills and international perspective. While in South Korea, Shoemaker will draw from her film and video-editing experiences to provide workshops to the students she will be working with. Shoemaker currently works for Boeing in Seattle, Wash., and when she returns from South Korea plans to pursue an MBA in international business.

Annabelle Wilmott(Political Science, Spanish '14 - Madrid) will be an English teaching assistant in Indonesia. In addition to her teaching responsibilities, Wilmott plans to develop an English language newspaper and provide creative writing workshops for the local community. When she returns to the U.S., Annabelle plans to attend law school with a focus on human rights law.

Three faculty members from the College of Arts and Sciences have also been selected to participate in a Fulbright-funded research opportunity for the 2014-2015 academic year.

The faculty grant recipients are:

Georgia Johnston, Ph.D.

Georgia Johnston, Ph.D. Johnston, a professor in the Department of English, will spend seven months next year in London as a Fulbright Scholar, researching and writing a new book, Gender as Textuality: A Modernist Methodology.

In London, she will be affiliated with and supported by Birkbeck College at the University of London. A number of the faculty in the Birkbeck College English department emphasize, in their early 20th-century literary scholarship, the connections between literature and some of the social sciences, such as sexology and eugenics. Centers of research in London, especially archival collections that cannot be accessed from anywhere else, will complicate Johnston's understanding of what gender meant in the early 20th century to both literary authors and social scientists. Archives of individual papers-letters, commentary, professional journals-are available in the Wellcome Institute, the Science Museum (associated with the Imperial College), the Women's Library (now housed in the London School of Economics) and the British Library.

Johnston is an expert in early 20th-century British literature, and she has published widely on autobiography, gender studies and poetry. Her earlier book, The Formation of 20th-Century Queer Autobiography, paves the way for this new project.

Nathaniel Millett, Ph.D.

Nathaniel Millett, Ph.D. Milllett is an associate professor in the Department of History, and has been awarded a Fulbright-All Discipline Scholar Award. During the 2014-15 academic year, he will be associated with University College in London and work full time on archival research for my current book project "Afro-Indian Relations in the Anglo-Atlantic World, ca. 1550-1815."

The fellowship will serve as an invaluable aid in the completion of the book, as the majority of the archives and libraries associated with this project, such as the British National Archives and British Library, are located in London or elsewhere in Britain.

Millett's academic interests include the experiences of African Americans and Native Americans, slavery, citizenship and contrasting empires. His first manuscript was a case study of North America's largest community of self-emancipated former slaves that emerged in Spanish West Florida during the War of 1812, which he used to exam a number of broader ideas about race, freedom, slavery and American expansion in the context of the Atlantic World and Borderlands during the Age of Revolution.

Millett received both his bachelor of the arts degree and doctoral degree in Britain. He will be sharing the experience of living in London with his wife and 2-year-old daughter.

T. Christine Stevens, Ph.D.

T. Christine Stevens, Ph.D. Stevens, a professor in the Department of Mathematics and Computer Science, has already begun her fellowship as a Fulbright Senior Scholar in Spain.

Working with Elena Martin-Peinador, Ph.D., a member of the mathematics faculty at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid (UCM), she has focused on completing her project titled "Character Groups, Duality and Weakened Lie Groups." The project stands at the border between algebra and geometry, and will deal with unusual ways to measure distances on mathematical objects -some familiar, some not. Martin-Peinador is an expert on duality theory, one of the principal tools Stevens used for studying these metrics.

She has also met with several other mathematicians in Spain who share her research interests, as well as working with graduate students. She has taught calculus classes during her fellowship, and has plans to visit SLU's Madrid campus.

Stevens' research interests include topological groups and the history of mathematics, and her professional interests include mathematics education and mathematics and public policy.

About Saint Louis University

Saint Louis University is a Catholic, Jesuit institution that values academic excellence, life-changing research, compassionate health care, and a strong commitment to faith and service. Founded in 1818, the University fosters the intellectual and character development of more than 13,500 students on two campuses in St. Louis and Madrid, Spain. Building on a legacy of nearly 200 years, Saint Louis University continues to move forward with an unwavering commitment to a higher purpose, a greater good.

About the Fulbright Scholars Program

The Fulbright Program is the flagship international educational exchange program sponsored by the U.S. government and is designed to increase mutual understanding between the people of the United States and the people of other countries. The primary source of funding for the Fulbright Program is an annual appropriation made by the U.S. Congress to the U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs.

Participating governments and host institutions, corporations and foundations in foreign countries and in the United States also provide direct and indirect support. Recipients of Fulbright grants are selected on the basis of academic or professional achievement, as well as demonstrated leadership potential in their fields. The program operates in more than 155 countries worldwide.